Internal reference: AVI. The Coast Guard does not publish a short code for this career field.
Fly Coast Guard helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in search and rescue, law enforcement, and homeland security missions.
Officer - College Degree Required, Flight Qualified
Catalog listing, not a contract offer. Confirm with a recruiter.
Aviation Officers fly Coast Guard helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as pilots and lead the units that support them. A typical week mixes flight hours, mission planning, weather and risk analysis, crew briefings, and the administrative load of running a department. You launch on search and rescue cases, drug and migrant interdiction patrols, pollution surveillance, and ice reconnaissance, almost all of it over American coastlines and waterways rather than overseas theaters. As part of the Department of Homeland Security, your air station coordinates routinely with local sheriffs, port authorities, and other federal agencies. Commissioning comes through the Coast Guard Academy, Officer Candidate School, or direct commission, followed by flight training.
Flight training gives you instrument proficiency, shipboard and hoist operations, night and low visibility flying, and aircraft commander judgment. You learn aviation risk management as a formal process, weighing crew rest, weather, fuel, and mission value before every launch. Leading a flight department teaches budgeting, maintenance oversight, scheduling, and the development of junior officers and enlisted crews. You become fluent in interagency coordination, since a single case can involve local responders, state agencies, and other federal partners. Case documentation and after action review sharpen your writing and analytical habits considerably, since every significant flight gets picked apart afterward.
Aviation demands a temperament that is decisive without being reckless, and the training deliberately builds it over years. You learn to hold a hard standard for yourself first and then for a crew that watches everything you do and say. Judgment under fatigue becomes a practiced skill rather than a gamble, especially on long night cases far offshore in poor weather. The role develops the confidence to call off a mission when the risk is not worth it, which takes more nerve than pressing on. Command responsibility also teaches you to absorb blame publicly and hand out credit generously.
Civilian aviation hires military pilots readily, and rotary wing hours are especially valuable in a tight market. Air medical transport, offshore energy support, law enforcement aviation, utility and firefighting operators, and airline flight decks are all realistic destinations. Continued federal service is another well worn path, including flight standards work and agency aviation programs. The management record, not only the flight time, is what moves people into chief pilot and operations director roles. Some officers pair the experience with an MBA or public administration degree and move into program management.
Your day starts on the flight line with a weather brief and a walkaround of your MH-65 or C-130 before you strap in and run through the preflight checklist with your aircrew. Once airborne you're vectoring toward a distress call or a suspect vessel, working the radios with air traffic control and your rescue swimmer in the back. Between sorties you debrief the mission, log flight hours, and prep the aircraft for the next launch.
No suitable exact-MOS or related career-field video has been verified for this page yet. No unrelated video or search-results page is substituted.
$77,814–$144,392
2026 basic pay only; the same grade and service time pay the same across jobs. Promotions are assumed, not promised. Excludes allowances, bonuses and special pays.
For Coast Guard AVI Aviation Officer, official service-wide guidance and any exact feeder-list matches are distinguished below from unverified specialty-specific requirements. Ranks are not separate jobs, and these possibilities are not guaranteed promotions or available contracts.
Examples of higher service ranks
These are service-wide rank names, not a verified promotion ladder for this specialty. Examples are not exhaustive; appointments sharing a pay grade are not additional promotion steps.
Official military rank referenceThe October 2026 Reserve Servicewide Examination announcement makes advancement conditional on rating/pay-grade qualifications and command recommendation, with rating-specific examination exceptions. Its scope is Reserve E-5 through E-7, not every grade or active-duty cycle. It does not establish a promotion ceiling for this listing.
Coast Guard October 2026 Reserve advancement examinationService-level application reference—not a verified next step for this listing
Officer Candidate School is a separate competitive commissioning pathway open to Coast Guard enlisted members. This general program does not establish individual eligibility or a transfer to any particular officer specialty. Warrant appointments have separate requirements; no rating-to-warrant feeder match is asserted here.
Coast Guard Officer Candidate SchoolSpecialty-specific advancement, senior assignments, and eligibility for a different personnel category have not been verified for this listing. No feeder eligibility or automatic transition to another specialty is implied.
Advancement depends on current service rules, performance, required education, qualifications, selection, and authorized positions—not simply years served. Confirm current requirements with an official recruiter or career counselor.
Related military jobs below are for exploration, not promised progression or confirmed transfer paths.
Sources reviewed 2026-10-03. This is a partial evidence review, not verification of every advancement route for this specialty. Source retrieval dates do not replace policy effective dates.
Career-field mappings, not automatic qualifications. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2024 national medians). O*NET links explain each occupation; military experience does not guarantee a job or salary.
Fly Coast Guard helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in search and rescue, law enforcement, and homeland security missions.
Aviation Officers fly Coast Guard helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as pilots and lead the units that support them. A typical week mixes flight hours, mission planning, weather and risk analysis, crew briefings, and the administrative load of running a department. You launch on search and rescue cases, drug and migrant interdiction patrols, pollution surveillance, and ice reconnaissance, almost all of it over American coastlines and waterways rather than overseas theaters. As part of the Department of Homeland Security, your air station coordinates routinely with local sheriffs, port authorities, and other federal agencies. Commissioning comes through the Coast Guard Academy, Officer Candidate School, or direct commission, followed by flight training.
Flight training gives you instrument proficiency, shipboard and hoist operations, night and low visibility flying, and aircraft commander judgment. You learn aviation risk management as a formal process, weighing crew rest, weather, fuel, and mission value before every launch. Leading a flight department teaches budgeting, maintenance oversight, scheduling, and the development of junior officers and enlisted crews. You become fluent in interagency coordination, since a single case can involve local responders, state agencies, and other federal partners. Case documentation and after action review sharpen your writing and analytical habits considerably, since every significant flight gets picked apart afterward.
Civilian aviation hires military pilots readily, and rotary wing hours are especially valuable in a tight market. Air medical transport, offshore energy support, law enforcement aviation, utility and firefighting operators, and airline flight decks are all realistic destinations. Continued federal service is another well worn path, including flight standards work and agency aviation programs. The management record, not only the flight time, is what moves people into chief pilot and operations director roles. Some officers pair the experience with an MBA or public administration degree and move into program management.
Officer - College Degree Required, Flight Qualified. This is the catalog's listed requirement, not an individual eligibility decision. Confirm the current standard and any exceptions with the service.
A civilian can pursue this specialty through an officer accession path, subject to eligibility and assignment. Confirm the current status of this specific classification with an official recruiter.
Catalog sources consulted: 2026-09-26. This is not an entry-by-entry verification date. No record-specific verification date is recorded. Occupation audit evidence reviewed: 2026-09-26; this does not re-verify every requirement.
The service documents this career field but does not publish this short code for it; the code shown here is an internal catalog reference.
Official occupation evidence · reviewed 2026-09-26
Provisional. Catalog evidence is not an inventory of open contracts.
The service documents this career field but does not publish this short code for it; the code shown here is an internal catalog reference.
We have not been able to confirm this exact code in a current official classification document. The occupation is documented, but the code may differ, may have been reorganized, or may be specific to one program. Confirm with an official recruiter before relying on it.
No dated public inventory confirmed a currently open recruiting contract for this role. This does not mean there are no openings. Confirm current eligibility and offers with an official recruiter.
Deployment likelihood: Moderate*
* Estimated. Rank progression and specialty-pay eligibility are illustrative assumptions. Deployment likelihood, when shown, is inferred from similar specialties in the branch and career field, not a published specialty deployment rate.
Descriptions may change. No military role is free from risk of injury or death, including non-combat work. Catalog review dates do not establish current openings or re-verification of every requirement.
Recruiting signals reflect what each branch published on the dates shown. They are not offers, and they do not mean a contract is open for you. Eligibility depends on your ASVAB scores, medical qualification, security clearance eligibility, and ship date. Confirm everything with an official recruiter. See our Disclaimer and Terms.